MB Sales guy's anti-Tesla sales pitch

[Barklikeadog]

The automotive world is changing much faster then the legacy dealerships can adapt.

If you drive a Tesla you will understand how fantastic it is. If you just learn from the journalists you hear how bad it is from their fake news.

A journalist will get lots more clicke writing "Tesla catches fire" than "Chevrolet catches fire" Ralph Nader killed the Corvair with his publication...Unsafe at any speed. That car was just as safe as a Pinto (also destroyed by journalists) or a Chevette (also killed by Journalists).

No one is allowed to dislike the vehicle?

This is one of those threads where the word 'cult' comes to mind. where you realize that those who are preaching tolerance so vehemently, have become the intolerant ones.

 

[rhumbliner]

If you think this is an ICE phenomenon, it's not. It was also true buying Teslas. This is why when I find a good sales person, I stick with them.

I don’t understand why you feel the need to have a salesperson. One of the things I loved about buying a Tesla was not having a salesperson. After riding in my buddy’s MS, I learned everything I needed to learn by reading articles online and from Tesla’s website. I then selected my options and placed the order online. My first visit to a Tesla showroom was more than a month after I placed the order.

 

[boaterva]

I don’t understand why you feel the need to have a salesperson. One of the things I loved about buying a Tesla was not having a salesperson. After riding in my buddy’s MS, I learned everything I needed to learn by reading articles online and from Tesla’s website. I then selected my options and placed the order online. My first visit to a Tesla showroom was more than a month after I placed the order.

Right, similar. Only reason I went to the store was to perhaps see the new 7 seater X and the new Cream interior. In fact, never saw them in person until I got my car (eek!).

But between TMC, YouTube Tesla folks and other research, learned all I needed to.

 

[jorobsand]

I returned a Mercedes AMG that was coming off of lease right after I picked up my MS P100D. The salesperson asked me as I was turning in my lease if I was interested in another Mercedes and I informed him that I had actually just took delivery of my Tesla. He thought it was the coolest thing. He was telling me that he owned a CPO 85D I think it was and we spent the next 30 minutes gushing over our Tesla's.

Not every salesperson thinks their brand has the best cars on the planet.

 

[The Duke]

Then again not everyone's experience is the same.
Wifey did not come to my first test drive in a Tesla S P100D. I took a friend and the Tesla person was stunning both in looks and knowledge. Unfortunately the test drive ended poorly with the car hitting a planter box during an auto park demonstration.
My friend leased a Jeep.
I brought Wifey to Tesla for my second drive, her first. She was not sold and wanted the MB, but I was. Our Tesla girl told me if I really wanted the car to take Wifey to Palo Alto and get "Tony" for a test drive. A few days later we were in Palo Alto and I put Wifey in a model S for a test drive with "Tony" while I waited. On their return Wifey said "OK, you can have one, but it has to be white". I talked a bit to "Tony" and found him clueless about Teslas but he knew all about our kids and grand kids.

 

[phaduman]

I read an article a couple of months ago from Porsche exec introducing their mission-E to their fans Porsche looks serious with Mission-E, and so they are paying extra attention to their die hard followers to convince them this is the future - taking extra care not to bash the ICE cars.

This will be a herculean task - and I hope they succeed - to teach the masses (& their own sales people) that EV IS the future. It will be a win for all EV makers - including Tesla.

Some day - it will be a Harvard business review case study (how Porsche succeeded - or failed - to convert their fans from engines to motors). Looking forward to see how this unfolds. Similar challenge will be with MB around 2020/21 when they have a serious lineup of their EV SUVs.

 

[MDMGSO47]

Dealer's don't get it. Manufactures do this id why car dealers may soon become dinosaurs.

 

[BenR]

I had a Chrysler salesman claim that the plug-in hybrid Pacifica (which only has a 3-year warranty and two different powertrains, neither of which FCA really has much of a clue about) would have lower lifetime maintenance costs than a Model 3. I very nearly laughed in his face.

(This same guy also claimed that the Pacifica plug-in was a "brand new model" for 2018 - apparently if his dealership didn't have any before, it didn't exist. )

On the other hand when I test-drove a Bolt, the Chevy guy was extremely cool and knowledgeable about the Bolt, and EVs in general. Turned out that he was a Model 3 reservation holder.

 

[croman]

When I bought my LEAF in 2014, I had to call 4 different Nissan dealerships because none of the first 3 carried or cared about selling a LEAF (My wife and I would only buy a BEV and couldn't afford a Tesla at that time).

I finally called the final one and the salesman stopped me mid-sentence to say he knew nothing about the LEAF but one guy only sold them. I spoke with him and after 1 hour he had a sale. He, personally, sold 1300 LEAFs now over 4 years. He's sold them to municipalities, regular folks, corporate sales, and even bought 2 himself.

I personally do not like Tesla's model of sales. I find a good salesman to be very helpful and I personally love to negotiate and haggle. I can't wait until every company only sells BEVs. I'm not married to Tesla and I find that the corporate practices of the company are reprehensible. To each their own.

 

[skitown]

I'm not married to Tesla and I find that the corporate practices of the company are reprehensible.

But not reprehensible like doing emissions testing on monkeys and humans, right? Or claiming that they can't possible afford to put seatbelts in cars and still turn a profit, right? Or... I support Tesla precisely because I find the legacy manufacturers to be reprehensible. I can't even fathom giving any of them another dime if I can help it. It's night and day to me, but I definitely agree on "to each his own", so am not trying to change your mind, and respect your opinion.

 

[Zythryn]

Would you try and sell someone something that you don't have? Why don't all of you go into an Apple store and ask for something with an Android OS. When the Apple nerd says
that Android sucks and whatever other false negative stuff about Android, you can come in here and post about it.

There is a lot of repressed anger around here. Why bother some guy who is trying to feed his family? Do you really expect a salesman to gush about how great a competitor's product is?

I have no issues with a salesman pointing out the advantages of their product. And I don't have too much issue with them pointing out factual issues with their competition.
I have HUGE issues with them making up *sugar*, or trying to blow things way out of proportion in the effort to get me to buy a product that doesn't meet my needs, or one that I don't want.

I have great respect for salesmen than will give me their honest impressions, and yes, I have given a few a test drive/ride in one of my Tesla's. And yes, they have been impressed, and let me know.
But if a dealer's rep is dishonest, about their own vehicle, or a competitors, that is the end of any chance of me doing business with them, or me recommending them to any friends or family.

 

[croman]

But not reprehensible like doing emissions testing on monkeys and humans, right? Or claiming that they can't possible afford to put seatbelts in cars and still turn a profit, right? Or... I support Tesla precisely because I find the legacy manufacturers to be reprehensible. I can't even fathom giving any of them another dime if I can help it. It's night and day to me, but I definitely agree on "to each his own", so am not trying to change your mind, and respect your opinion.

Maybe I don't like anyone. I'm a former environmental attorney that sued polluters and helped shut down 11 coal fired power plants in the Midwest. Clearly dieselgate was far more offensive and reprehensible than anything Tesla has done or perhaps could do but i still find many of their corporate practices to be troubling.

 

[skitown]

Maybe I don't like anyone. I'm a former environmental attorney that sued polluters and helped shut down 11 coal fired power plants in the Midwest. Clearly dieselgate was far more offensive and reprehensible than anything Tesla has done or perhaps could do but i still find many of their corporate practices to be troubling.

Fair enough, thanks for your background; that's cool. I feel like I'm needing to view peoples' comments through my "it's all relative" lens a lot these days.

 

[Electroman]

but i still find many of their corporate practices to be troubling.

Such as..?

You have my attention and respect only because you are a guy that really did something to shutdown coal plants. Thats really great.

So what Tesla's corporate practices you find troubling?

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Sigh*.
Thinking of that year that I got daughter, wife and son a new car. Yes, each car is still running fine, no lemons. But. From the first, a Corolla (no online research) to my son’s Rogue (I was now hip to CU/TruCar, generating the Guaranteed Price in the back seat of their test drive), I felt progressively less haggle-raped the more I read and transacted online. Felt out-negotiated on the first, was starved/stalled “just wait in the lounge for a couple hours with your diabetic spouse to see the manager” (it was for a Xylon pitch) at the second even after the deal was struck, and should have walked out of the third. Though I was paying cash, the Manager Guy pulled my son’s credit (zero history but for a student loan) and lectured him&his-fiancee&me about it. Forget coffee, how about free condescension?

A bit later was when I ordered my own car, a ‘14 S85. Completely dealage-free transaction. Makes me angry thinking about those dealer-controlled purchase experiences. Literally angry!

Do luv the local Lexus guys though. Pearlie May goes there for every annual state inspection ...on Saturday. They have been trained by us over 4 years how not to charge for Emissions testing, and the weekend breakfast is yummy.

*Actually a much different word but with the same number of letters.

 

[scottm]

Last time I bought a car from a dealer I did my own learning and research and everything.

I just walked into a dealer of the brand (Subaru) and asked front desk to see the sales manager (this avoids having to pay a commission to a sales person) and I offered a bottom line price for the car I wanted, it was $31,000. On the lot. I said I'd write a cheque for that amount for that car, please write the VIN down. He did. I took the blank contract and instead of writing down all the details about me, I wrote down 31,000 on the total sale price bottom line and "offer valid for 24 hours" and dated it. I flipped the contract over and read the fine print. I struck and initialed whatever I didn't like. I said he could work the numbers backwards up the contract page however he'd like to reflect whatever fees, taxes, levies, and whatnot was important to them. He did. Once he was done that, I filled out the rest of the information about me.

Next day I got the key in exchange for the cheque... was painless. Did it in one hour total over the two days. Not all dealerships suck.

 

[croman]

Such as..?

You have my attention and respect only because you are a guy that really did something to shutdown coal plants. Thats really great.

So what Tesla's corporate practices you find troubling?

It wasn't only me. I worked with a team of volunteer attorneys and the Obama DOJ and Region 5 EPA were essential as well. I also helped with clean water social justice issues, heavy metal soil pollution, CERCLA, RCRA, etc. There are a lot of environmental issues in our nation and I primarily focused on my surrounding areas but Clean Air Act issues have a national significance.

Frankly, what actually killed the coal plants were market forces but shutting them down a decade ago definitely saved a lot of lives. People who were affected were minorities who lived near these power plants. Chicago was the ONLY US city with coal power plants within the city limits (and of course located in the poorest areas).

Anyways, there is a long list of things I have issues with at Tesla

1. Deceptive Marketing (range, battery capacity, HP, AP, etc.). Tesla lies when it suits them. As I said, I'm not saying others are better, just that Tesla does it. Its particularly aggravating for me with regard to AP2. I bought in November 2016. My sales person and Elon were telling me my car would have everything the AP1 car had upon delivery or by December 31, 2016. 17 months later, still not full AP1 parity much less ANYTHING in EAP or FSD. I would've bought a CPO AP1 car had I known the truth.

2. Failure to adhere to copyright licensing/open source licenses: They recently started addressing this after years. So kudos and I hope they continue.

3. Right to Repair: Tesla is horrible about complying with this. People should be allowed to repair their own cars. Further, Tesla does not comply with Copyright laws that legally allow owners to root their cars. John Deere was recently sued and lost about this (people wanted to root their tractors).

4. Inability to supply replacement parts: Tesla does its owners a great disservice by failing to timely provide parts for repairs by prioritizing production over its existing customers' needs. No other car company asks its customers to bite the bullet with MONTHS long repair times. This has exponentially increased insurance costs and associated losses for owners. Its unacceptable and now Jon McNeill is gone and no one seems to care about this issue after some modest improvements when he created a parts division.

5. Culture of blaming owners in AP accidents: Owners make mistakes but Tesla's system shares blame for failing in a lot of these incidents. I am a careful user but AP has tried to kill me 3 times since I took delivery. I could see how if I was momentarily distracted, I could be one of those people Tesla (and many sanctimonious people on this forum) would pillory just because I wasn't able to timely fight a momentarily murderous system.

I just don't like that Tesla selectively releases information and frames it to blame the owner. For example, AP has no real driver monitoring. Torquing a wheel is a poor proxy for driver engagement (I could be texting and occasionally jerk the wheel and AP thinks I'm the best vs. holding the actual wheel and constantly engaged but not jerking the wheel often enough for Tesla's liking). The fact is getting "hold the wheel" nags does not indicate the driver wasn't engaged in the act of driving but Tesla misleads the public into thinking that it is.

Clearly some owners were driving distracted (Utah, Florida). That's always an issue no matter the system until we get to L3/4/5 territory but I also think the system should do better and Tesla does no one any favors by blaming owners to shirk blame for failing to deliver a more robust software package.

There are other issues too but that should give you a good idea.

 

[TaoJones]

It’s particularly aggravating for me with regard to AP2. I bought in November 2016. My sales person and Elon were telling me my car would have everything the AP1 car had upon delivery or by December 31, 2016. 17 months later, still not full AP1 parity much less ANYTHING in EAP or FSD. I would've bought a CPO AP1 car had I known the truth.

Very well said. And the $20-$280 many are due from the AP2 class action is just laughable - and perhaps all the more reason to go it alone.

Then there was the subsequent 90kWh/100kWh-related supercharging bait and switch over 6-10 weeks that Spring.

It’s been over a year and still no resolution. But I’m a patient guy.

 

[Electroman]

1. Deceptive Marketing (range, battery capacity, HP, AP, etc.). Tesla lies when it suits them.

Agreed. FSD and EAP are good examples of that.

2. Failure to adhere to copyright licensing/open source licenses:

Much ado about nothing. There is really nothing much to get worked up - IMHO

3. Right to Repair: Tesla is horrible about complying with this.

Its a little tricky. A software driven computer on wheels that does not have any industry standardization yet, cannot and should not be repaired by your local Good Year. Tesla is understandably quite reticent on opening up. They will at some point for M3s

4. Inability to supply replacement parts:

Agreed. They should prioritize sending parts for repairs ahead of new cars.

5. Culture of blaming owners in AP accidents:

Completely disagree. AP is clearly L2 - a driver assist that needs driver attention and supervision. Idiots get too confident and crash the car and end up blaming AP for their stupidity. You You and the Utah women - yes I am referring to them

Thanks for sharing your concerns

 

[brucet999]

Before I bought a Tesla, I wanted to buy a Nissan 370Z and the salesman did not know it could be configured with a manual transmission until I showed him the configuration on Nissan.com :|

This is why we all hate dealerships.

You could say that about Tesla Energy as well. That bunch of Solar City retreads don't know much about their traditional solar panels and next to nothing about Tesla PowerWall or Solar Roof. Out of seven solar companies I contacted, Tesla/Solar City people were the least knowledgeable.